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Leopold Winchester Level 5

My name is Leopold Winchester. I am over four thousand years old. I cannot give you a specific number because for much of that time I was dead, sleeping, or pissed as a skunk. I lose my way in the absence of my kin. Whilst they slept, the world became inhospitable and its people cruel. I drank to find hope, and slept to forget the War of the Tap. Everything changed the day the Dawnbringers slew the necromancer Xem’Zund. Centuries of war, Tap, trap, and testimony undone by their deeds. Hope rekindled in Berevar’s cold wastes. One dead monster does not free a people, however. It was only when Denebriel was toppled from her withered throne that the Old Gods began to wake. War was first. Then Hatred.

The Old Gods are not dead. They are asleep. If I have any say on the matter, they’ll stay that way. Picture the Thayne, corrupt, self-indulgent, nihilistic watchers in the dark. Now picture the Old Gods, all that and thousands and years of hatred for anything alive. Their age is long gone, a time of primal faith and earthen rage spent and subsumed by believe only in the Tap and those who wield it. When the Thayne rose from nothingness, they could not suffer being anything less than True Gods. A trick slipped the Old Gods over the edge, and trapped them in their own realm in the frozen heart of Berevar.

I too was an Old God. I guess I still am. They call me Raven, once the Old God of death. I watched the gates between this world and the next, unrelenting in my fervour and need to keep the order of things. I met Phoenix in Salvar, a woman in red as bright as the sun. It turned out she was Ruby, in another life, reborn as the hero needed to free the people of Salvar’s wilds from the grip of Denebriel. When I gave up my power to live a mortal life with her she did too. We were married in spring, but by winter’s fall she was taken from me.

Centuries later I saw her again, identical and unaging. I couldn’t believe it. I had begun to lose my humanity and she saved me, again. I don’t know what I’d do without her, well…I do. I’d become Raven again, and with me by their side, the Old Gods who stir in the wilds would spill out into the world unrelenting and hellbent on one thing alone. The death of the Thayne. And then I am fucking realising. That’s exactly what we want. Duffy wants to break down the barriers between us and them. A play, he thinks, will bring back Wainwright from the recesses of the Tap before the last of the wellsprings close. Then the Tap can return, refreshed and renewed and free of the millennia of corrupted by the Thayne, the Forgotten Ones, and the Old Gods.

So, picture me, centuries after turning down the gates of death, waltzing back into the Ice Henge and having a powwow with my former colleagues. I cut War in half, slew the god of winter with a shot to the head, and made them bow. If they want out, they do it on my terms, and in the end if all goes to plan we will be free – no more gods. No more Thayne. No more decay and depravity at the behest of tyrants in the sky. Of course, it’ll probably all go tits up and we’ll be right back where we started. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself, about being alive, is that family are worth fighting for. They’re worth dying for. I want nothing more than freedom at long bastard last.

Marksman: Leopold is accurate with his guns. He can clean, repair, and replicate basic firearms and instruct others in their use. He has a penchant for over-savouring the shot, however, so isn’t best equipped for rapid-firing. He can still aim well when mobile.

Logistician: Leopold can acutely perceive shape, distance. He can handle figures and solve problems with ease. If he puts his mind to any problem he can usually come up with a financially viable solution, given enough incentive (read, enough liquor).

Merchant: Leopold possesses adept knowledge of the trade rules of Corone, Scara Brae, and Fallien. He has black market connections that allow him to get a hold of anything and everything for the right price and the right amount of arm twisting. Usually, it’s his arm.

Cartographer: Leopold has expert knowledge of Scara Brae, Alerar, and Corone’s geography. He can plot detailed courses through those regions and has access to small ships on tender and a caravan of wagons operating in Salvar and Berevar. His business glory days are very much over, however.

Spy: Leopold can utilise charisma and disguises to conceal his identity with adept skill. This allows him to trade and travel where otherwise he could not though he’s still unmissably a middle-aged man with a belly and a cheeky, bourbon stained smile when it comes down to it.

Dragoon: Once a cavalry soldier, always a brawler, Leopold has adept skill when fighting with his spear and sabre and fighting on horseback. He, like most men of a certain age, fights much better with a shot of whiskey or twelve in his belly. He prefers higher ground.

Abilities:

Raven Call: Leopold can conjure three fist sized ravens. They strike with concussive force at X2.5 strength. Useable three times per thread.

The Aerie: Leopold can conjure and exile non-magical or living items into a space he calls the Aerie. It cannot be accessed by anyone except Leopold.

Old God: Leopold is immeasurably old. He does not age physically. When he dies, he reincarnates, and possesses a 60% resistance to light and dark magic spells.

Inventory:

Isabella: A white barrelled flintlock pistol that fires single solid shells. It costs 25 gold per shot. Its effective range is 200 feet.

Davina: A black shafted steel spear enchanted to inflict double damage against winged beings. The spearhead can detach as a cavalry sabre.